Bomb attacks in Syrian capital kill 8 people

Civilians and security officers milled at the scene of a bombing in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Residents of the district are mostly Alawites, an offshoot Shi’ite sect that President Bashar Assad’s family belongs to.SANA/AFP

DAMASCUS — Suicide bombers targeted security compounds in Damascus and a car bomb exploded in a pro-regime district there Sunday, killing at least eight people, the latest in a surge of civil war violence in the capital.

In northern Syria, a car bomb killed 12 soldiers in Aleppo, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists in Syria for information. It had no other details, and the government did not comment.

The state-run news agency SANA said three suicide bombers blew themselves up while trying to break into the Rukneddine police station in northern Damascus, killing five people and wounding several others.